The Social Life: Ask.fm and anonymity

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding website ask.fm.

It has been reported New Zealand Police have contacted the owners of the social networking website which enables bullying and has been linked to overseas suicides.

Schools are alerting parents to the bullying risks associated with ask.fm, a website that allows users to pose questions to each other anonymously.

NetSafe chief executive Martin Cocker said the anonymity possible on the website, and that it was mostly used by those still at school, had created bullying problems.

While some questions are as harmless as "what's your favourite movie?", teenagers have received posts questioning why they don't kill themselves or self-harm.

NetSafe is now receiving a steady number of calls relating to bullying between school students, some of which had occurred on ask.fm.

I know people who have joined ask.fm and several of them use it as a fun way to pass the time. Of my friends pages I have not seen instances or bullying or threatening messages, but I know that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

I can see the potential for harm.

Ask.fm is the creation of brothers and internet entrepreneurs Ilya and Mark Terebin and is run from the company's headquarters in Latvia. As of April, the website had around 40 million users, with thousands signing up daily.

With the majority of ask.fm users being teens, you can see how things might get out of hand.

Teenagers don't always understand the seriousness of their actions. Some may not realise how their anonymous comments affect people.

Teens may struggle to deal with these sorts of comments and might not be aware of help that is available to them.

Police last week urged extreme caution to people who were using the website.

Safety tips on ask.fm state that anonymous questions can be turned off by users in their privacy settings.

"This way nobody will be able to ask you anonymously and you'll have a better control over content you receive in your Inbox," the website said.

"If you receive a question that makes you uncomfortable for any reason, do not respond to the question, tell a parent, guardian or other trusted adult and block the user who sent it so they can't contact you again.

"If the person keeps bothering you, report abuse to us by pressing the Report button and to law enforcement," it suggested.